1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to mobile communication device and method for identifying a counterfeit bill, and more particularly, to a mobile communication device a method and for identifying a counterfeit bill using InfraRed (IR) light.
2. Description of the Related Art
Extensive research has recently been conducted on methods and devices for identifying counterfeit bills. Conventionally, identification of counterfeit bills is performed through visual inspection. However, it is difficult to determine whether a bank note or bill is counterfeit without having prior knowledge of features used to prevent forgery, tampering, or counterfeiting of bank notes or bills.
When a conventional bill counter uses an IR counterfeit detection technique, a bill image can be acquired by the same illumination at a fixed position through a loading machine attached to the bill counter. Therefore, the bill image may avoid an illumination change and a geometrical distortion.
Counterfeit detection devices and methods using a mobile IR camera are currently being studied. However, a shortcoming of using a mobile IR camera is that it is significantly affected by a user's capturing motion or an ambient environment. For example, the information of a bill image captured from a mobile IR camera is likely to be degraded due to user hand tremors, lens characteristics, or an ambient illumination environment depending on an image capturing position.